Bachmann shows signs of life

The Michele Bachmann conservatives fell in love with during the campaign’s early debates returned Tuesday night.

Bachmann, whose campaign has suffered a series of unforced errors and clunky debate performances since she won the Ames Straw Poll in August, delivered a solid performance at the Washington Post/Bloomberg forum, striking her campaign themes while discussing complex economic issues without a stumble.

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She gave serious answers — with the exception of a lighthearted joke comparing Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan to a sign of the devil — and didn’t whiff when Mitt Romney lobbed her a gift softball question.

Bachmann trained her signature shot at her chief economic boogeyman, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation, and, in so doing, blamed the federal government for the recession.

“I think if you look at the problem with the economic meltdown, you can trace it right back to the federal government, because it was the federal government that demanded that banks and mortgage companies lower platinum-level lending standards to new lows,” she said.

Bachmann also played up her fight against the debt ceiling increase — a battle she highlighted with great success before the Ames Straw Poll — and the bailouts of Wall Street and the automobile industry.

“Last summer, I was a leading voice in the wilderness of Washington and a lone voice, as a matter of fact, saying: ‘Do not increase the debt ceiling,’” she said. “By that, what I was saying is, ‘Let’s not give Barack Obama another $2.4 trillion blank check to spend.’”

Bachmann’s clean shot at Cain’s tax plan was designed to help her in Iowa, where Cain’s surge has come at the expense of much of Bachmann’s support among tea party-aligned voters.

“I would have to say that the 9-9-9 plan isn’t a jobs plan, it is a tax plan,” she said. “And I would say that from my experience being in Congress, but also as a federal tax lawyer, when you — the last thing you would do is give Congress another pipeline of a revenue stream. And this gives Congress a pipeline in a sales tax.”

Then, in a scripted joke, she said: “And one thing I would say is, when you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details.”

Each of Bachmann’s statements Tuesday appeals to the Iowa social conservatives she’ll need to resurrect her campaign there. Meanwhile, her campaign’s press operation paired her responses with more direct attacks on Cain and Rick Perry, her chief rivals for that slice of the electorate, than it has managed during past debates.